This invention relates to inertial spin filters or centrifugal separators, and more particularly to an improved modular-type spin filter or separator, which relies upon centrifugal force to separate dirt and moisture in dispersed form from a stream of gas, such as air.
It has long been customary to employ centrifugal separators, known also in industrial filter applications as inertial spin filters, of the type which are placed in a stream of gas to mechanically separate dust particles and the like from the gas during its passage through the filter. Typically such a filter comprises a series of tubes containing stationary air spinners, or convolute cores, which impart a swirling motion and high radial velocity to the gas as it passes through a respective tube. Normally the tubes are placed side-by-side in a rigid housing with their spinner cores mounted adjacent the inlet ends of the tubes, and with discharge tubes or ducts of smaller diameter projecting from the outlet ends of the spin filter tubes, so that an annular space is thus formed between the discharge duct and the bore wall of each spin filter tube. During use, dust particles and moisture in the swirling gas are urged by centrifugal forces radially outwardly as the gas approaches the discharge end of each spin filter tube, whereby the cleaned gas passes directly through the discharge tube, while the dust particles and droplets exit through the annular space around the outside of the discharge tube, and into a bleeder duct which exhausts the particles to atmosphere or to a collector.
Heretofore it has been customary to mold filter housings of the type described from corrosion-resistant plastic materials, such as for example polypropylene and the like. Typically each housing is made in two separate parts, which are thereafter secured together by conventional fastening means, such as pins or bolts. The disadvantage of this type of fabrication is that separate tools and fastening means must be provided for securing the housing sections together. Moreover, for housings of different sizes, correspondingly different molding devices must be provided, thus contributing substantially to the overall cost of providing a variety of differently-sized housings.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a modular spin filter of the type described, which comprises a plurality of standard sections that are releasably attachable to each other in modular form to produce filter housings of substantially any desired size.
Another object of this invention is to provide improved means for securing together the housing sections of spin filters of the type described, so that the housings can be assembled without the use of any separate fastening means or tools.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.